[Drink inside the box.]
Deux Roches Mâcon-Villages
DEUX ROCHES MÂCON-VILLAGES TRADITION 2022 Price: $27.95 ($25.25 without HST)Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Collovray et TerrierCountry: FranceRegion: BurgundyAppellation: Mâcon-Villages Grapes: ChardonnayAlcohol by Volume: 13%Sugar Content: 5 grams per litre Sunshine lemon citrus and stone licking minerality: this Deux Roches Mâcon-Villages is a kind of Platonic ideal of a food friendly, straight forward, well made Chardonnay. At $25 it’s a bargain, but anywhere under $30 it’s great value. I liken it to a stainless steel version of Pouilly-Fuissé. It’s genererous, but also…
Cave de Lugny Chardonnay
Cave de Lugny Mâcon-Lugny Saint-Pierre Chardonnay 2022 Price: $23.55Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Cave de LugnyCountry: FranceRegion: BurgundyAppellation: Mâcon-Lugny (Mâcon-Villages) Grapes: ChardonnayAlcohol by Volume: 13%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre Lean and lemony, this white burgundy is a classic from the renown and respective co-operative in Lugny, one of the better known of the eleven communes that make-up the Mâcon-Villages appellation. Cave de Lugny is a good example of the new…
Argo Langhe Nebbiolo
Villadoria Argo Langhe Nebbiolo 2020 Price: $20.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: VilladoriaCountry: ItalyRegion: PiedmontAppellation: Langhe Grapes: NebbioloAlcohol by Volume: 13.5%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre In this province, a 473 ml (16 oz) can of Black Cherry flavour White Claw Hard Seltzer costs $3.35. So, a six pack costs $20.10, which is just 70 cents less than a bottle of the Villadoria ‘Argo’ Langhe Nebbiolo 2020. À chacun sont goût, and…
Tres Olmos Verdejo
Garciarévalo Tres Olmos Verdejo 2021 Price: $14.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: GarciarévalosCountry: SpainRegion: RuedaAppellation: Rueda DO Grapes: VerdejoAlcohol by Volume: 12.8%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre Spanish whites might be having a moment. At least they are at my house, where we look for good value and fresh fruit character. This fresh organic white gets a few months on its lees to round out its character, and the result is remarkably…
Muga Reserva 2019
Muga Rioja Reserva 2019 Price: $28.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Bodegas MugaCountry: SpainRegion: La RiojaAppellation: Rioja DO Grapes: Tempranillo, Garnacha Tinta, Mazuelo, GracianoAlcohol by Volume: 14.5%Sugar Content: 3 grams per litre The British wine writer, and Spanish wine expert, Tim Atkin MW calls the 2018 Muga Reserva “textbook”. That is a much more intersting way of saying classic, which was my note when I tasted it earlier this year. The Muga…
Caruso & Minini Catarratto
Caruso & Minini Naturalmente Bio Catarratto 2021 Price: $21.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Caruso & MininiCountry: ItalyRegion: SicilyAppellation: Sicilia DOCG Grapes: CatarrattoAlcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: 8 grams per litre Catarratto competes with Sangiovese as Italy’s most planted grape variety, and nearly all of it is in Western Sicily. Once a mainstay of sweet, fortified Marsala wine, the grape is being taken seriously as a dry wine variety as the island’s…
Bachelder Les Villages Gamay
Bachelder Les Villages Niagara Gamay Noir 2021 Price: $25.95Channel: Bachelder Wines Producer: Bachelder WinesCountry: CanadaRegion: NiagaraAppellation: Niagara Peninsula VQA Grapes: GamayAlcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre Thomas Bachelder is surely one of Canada’s masters of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, having honed his craft in Burgundy, Oregon, then ‘home’ to Niagara. Lately, he’s become a kind of scholar of the Niagara Peninsula, carefully sourcing fruit from small, family…
Sanjoanne Terroir Mineral 2020
Quinta Sanjoanne Terroir Mineral 2020 Price: $26.03 (including tax and delivery fees)Channel: Buyers + Cellars Producer: Casa de CelloCountry: PortugalRegion: AmaranteAppellation: Vinho Verde Grapes: Loureiro, AvessoAlcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: <1.5 grams per Litre The Terroir Mineral is a Vinho Verde because it is made within the boundaries of the region in Northern Portugal, and it is made from two of the half dozen or so grapes that are allowed…
Yalumba Bush Vine Grenache
Yalumba Samuel Smith Collection Barossa Bush Vine Grenache 2021 Price: $26.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: YalumbaCountry: AustraliaRegion: South AustraliaAppellation: Barossa Grapes: GrenacheAlcohol by Volume: 14.5%Sugar Content: 3 grams per litre The Yalumba winery has remained in the Hill-Smith family for six generations, and this series of wines named after its founder focuses on old vines. The Grenache vines from which the 2021 Bush Vines was made were planted between 1920 and…
Bersano Gavi di Gavi
Bersano Gavi di Gavi 2022 Price: $22.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: BersanoCountry: ItalyRegion: PiedmontAppellation: Gavi DOCG Grapes: CorteseAlcohol by Volume: 12%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre The white wines of Gavi in Piedmont, made from the regionally indigenous Cortese grape, are said to have been developed for the seafood restaurants of Genoa on the Ligurian Coast not far over the mountains away. Bersano’s version might do very well with fresh seafood…
El Petit Bonhomme
x El Petit Bonhomme 2020 Price: $16.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Les Vins BonhommeCountry: SpainRegion: MurciaAppellation: Jumilla DO Grapes: Monastrelle (55%), Garnacha (30%), Syrah (15%)Alcohol by Volume: 14.5%Sugar Content: 4 grams per litre The Australians might have GSM, but the Southern Spanish have MGS: Monastrelle (aka Mourvèrdre), Granacha (Grenche) and Syrah. At least they do in this delicious aggressively priced juicy red from Nathalie Bonhomme’s wine making company, Les Vins Bonhomme.…
Res Fortes GSM Côtes du Roussillon
Res Fortes GMS Côtes du Roussillon Price: $30.33 (includes all taxes and delivery fees)Channel: Ranger Wine Producer: Res FortesCountry: FranceRegion: RoussillonAppellation: Côtes du Roussillon AOP Grapes: Grenache (60%), Mourvèrde (30%), Syrah (10%)Alcohol by Volume: 14.5%Sugar Content: Unknown, drinks very dry Moritz Bak established the organic winery, Res Fortes in 2018 in Maury, a part of Roussillon known principally for sweet, fortified Vin Doux Naturel. Bone dry, Res Fortes wines are…
Via Nostrum Corbières
Foncalieu Via Nostrum 2019 Price: $18.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Vignobles FoncalieuCountry: FranceRegion: LanguedocAppellation: Corbières AOC Grapes: Syrah (70%), Grenache (30%)Alcohol by Volume: 14%Sugar Content: 3 grams per litre Here is the revenge of the co-operatives, in the form of an affordable and delicious Syrah driven red from the South of France. Les Vignobles Foncalieu is a kind of super co-oprative: a co-op of co-ops with land under vine across all…
Zenato Lugana
Zenato San Benedetto Lugana 2021 Price: $19.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Essentials Producer: ZenatoCountry: ItalyRegion: Lombardy and VenetoAppellation: Lugana DOC Grapes: VerdicchioAlcohol by Volume: 13%Sugar Content: 6 grams per litre Zenato is a producer best known for making Amarone from the red grapes grown on the hills of Valpolicella. Looking to the west from those hills is the blue shard of Lake Garda which juts northwards into Trentino and the Dolomite Alps.…
Ciù Ciù Bacchus Rosso Piceno
Ciù Ciù Bacchus Rosso Piceno DOC 2021 Price: $20 ($24.48 with tax and delivery)Channel: Le Sommelier Producer: Ciù Ciù Tenimente BortolomeiCountry: ItalyRegion: Le MarcheAppellation: Rosso Piceno DOC Grapes: Sangiovese (50%), Montepulciano (50%)Alcohol by Volume: 13.5%Sugar Content: Unknown / drinks dry I wrote about the 2021 Ciù Ciù Bacchus Rosso Piceno in my wine column at The Hub because it seemed like this wine arrived in Ontario at just the right…
I Campi Campo Base Soave
I Campi Campo Base Soave 2021 Price: $22.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Flavio PràCountry: ItalyRegion: VenetoAppellation: Soave DOC Grapes: GarganegaAlcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: 4 grams per litre Here is a wine that embodies the risorgimento of the Soave appelation. It’s crisp and mineral, as one would expect from Garganega planted in volcanic soils, and yet it has old vines body and mid-palate weight, presumably from its six months on the…
La Pirolette Saint-Amour 2020
Dme. de la Pirolette Saint-Amour 2020 Price: $27.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Domaine de la PiroletteCountry: FranceRegion: BeaujolaisAppellation: Saint-Amour Grapes: GamayAlcohol by Volume: 14%Sugar Content: 3 grams per litre Currently the website for the Domaine de la Pirolette describes its location in the village of Saint-Amour as ‘South Burgundy’, but it is a good thing that in the late 14th to mid 15th centuries it was not part of that duchy.…
Fontanafredda Langhe Chardonnay
Fontanafredda Langhe Chardonnay 2021 Price: $20.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: FontanafreddaCountry: ItalyRegion: PiedmontAppellation: Langhe DOC Grapes: ChardonnayAlcohol by Volume: 13%Sugar Content: 3 grams per litre God bless Oscar Farinetti, the modular furniture tycoon who cashed out and founded Eataly and bought Barolo’s most famous winery, Fonatanfredda. Farinetti has proven to be a great democratizer of fine food and wine who embodies the principles of his friend and collaborator Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow…
Domaine de Rochebin Bourgogne Blanc 2021
Rochebin Mâcon Azé Chardonnay 2021 Price: $21.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Domaine de RochebinCountry: FranceRegion: BurgundyAppellation: Mâcon Azé Grapes: ChardonnayAlcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre In the Southern Burgundy chapter of Ten Vineyard Lunches (1988), Richard Olney pairs a 1983 Mâcon Villages with Truffled Sausage with Pistachios in Court Bouillon. Or, to be honest, while he does not explicitly pair Chardonnay from the Mâconnais, a bottle of it…
La Nerthe Les Cassagnes
La Nerthe is an established producer in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and the vineyards that produce Les Cassagnes, are located next door, just 15kms north up the river. Robert Parker's famous complimentary adjective for Châteauneuf is 'hedonistic', and this second wine from La Nerthe is a fine example of this quality.
Elena Walch Lagrein
Elena Walch Lagrein 2021 Price: $23.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Elena WalchCountry: ItalyRegion: Alto Adige / SüdtirolAppellation: Alto Adige DOC Grapes: LagreinAlcohol by Volume: 13.5%Sugar Content: 6 grams per litre Elena Walch was an architect who married into the grape growing Walch family and took an interest in wine making. Now, she and her daughters, Julia and Karoline run the family winery. Karoline does the marketing, and I met her a…
Camas Chenin
Anne de Joyeuse Camas Chenin 2021 Price: $19.35Channel: The Living Vine Producer: Anne de JoyeuseCountry: FranceRegion: LanguedocAppellation: Pays d’Oc IGP Grapes: Chenin BlancAlcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: Unknown Apparently Anne de Joyeuse was a 16th century duke, friend of the French King Henry III, and a big deal… until he was killed by Huguenots at the Battle of Coutras in 1587 at just 27 years old. Wikipedia has no notes…
JM Raffault Les Picasses
JM Raffault Les Picasses Chinon 2018 Price: $27.12Channel: Le Sommelier Producer: Jean-Maurice RaffaultCountry: FranceRegion: LoireAppellation: Chinon AOP Grapes: Cabernet FrancAlcohol by Volume: 14.5%Sugar Content: Unknown Les Picasses is a famous Loire Valley vineyard site, shared by a few producers, and coveted by more. It’s a plateau formed in the triangular peninsula whose western tip is the confluence of the Loire and the Vienne. It’s in Chinon, on the south side…
Fanti Poggio Torto
Tenuta Fanti Poggio Torto Rosso 2019 Price: $25.99Channel: Le Sommelier Producer: Tenuta FantiCountry: ItalyRegion: Tuscany (Montalcino)Appellation: Toscana IGT Grapes: Sangiovese, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet SauvignonAlcohol by Volume: 14.5%Sugar Content: Less than 1 gram per litre With roots in Montalcino since the 19th century, the Fanti family has very much been part of the meteorotic rise of Brunello di Montalcino DOCG since the 1970s. And while their Brunello is superb, it’s pricey,…